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kkenna7's reviews
270 reviews
Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
This is just so underwhelming. Nothing is happening. The time jumps are unnecessary and under-300 pages it's not like they were implemented for length purposes. Just a lot of decisions were made here that are clearly beyond me and that's fine. I'm just disappointed as I really wanted to love this one.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
*Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the e-Arc! All opinions are my own.*
I've unfortunately decided to DNF this one. While this is through no fault of the book or the author inherently, this is my second by SGJ and I just do not vibe with his writing style. His prose is quite wordy to me, and I find that I'm getting lost in the paragraphs and I lose the plot so frequently, I have to go back and forth and it takes me so long to get through. He is so highly acclaimed and I wanted to love his work, especially as the premise of this one is incredible, but it's just not meshing well for me.
For what it's worth, it'd be a consolation 3-stars for my ineptitude.
I've unfortunately decided to DNF this one. While this is through no fault of the book or the author inherently, this is my second by SGJ and I just do not vibe with his writing style. His prose is quite wordy to me, and I find that I'm getting lost in the paragraphs and I lose the plot so frequently, I have to go back and forth and it takes me so long to get through. He is so highly acclaimed and I wanted to love his work, especially as the premise of this one is incredible, but it's just not meshing well for me.
For what it's worth, it'd be a consolation 3-stars for my ineptitude.
Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
*Thank you to William Morrow, Harper Audio, and NetGalley for the advanced copies of this book! All opinions are my own.*
I was lucky enough to get both and e-book and audiobook version of this and it was super fun tandem reading this one! I had a lot of fun with this. I'm seeing a lot of people calling it unrealistic, which seems like a weird criticism for a fiction work imo. I think this genre especially gets a lot of people dissecting how feasible the plot would be in real life, and to those people I say: you're simply no fun.
This book *almost* lost me with the romance subplot. I hate a gratuitous romance subplot, but I let her cook, and the twist made it make more sense. It was all part of Jay's manipulation/delusions!
This book is a perfect kitschy thriller and a wonderful debut. So excited to see what Deitch does now that she's got her feet wet. It's gonna be a popular one with a tone of patrons at my library, and I'll definitely be recommending it to a bunch of people. I'm sorry to those who don't know how to have fun, I guess. :/
I was lucky enough to get both and e-book and audiobook version of this and it was super fun tandem reading this one! I had a lot of fun with this. I'm seeing a lot of people calling it unrealistic, which seems like a weird criticism for a fiction work imo. I think this genre especially gets a lot of people dissecting how feasible the plot would be in real life, and to those people I say: you're simply no fun.
This book is a perfect kitschy thriller and a wonderful debut. So excited to see what Deitch does now that she's got her feet wet. It's gonna be a popular one with a tone of patrons at my library, and I'll definitely be recommending it to a bunch of people. I'm sorry to those who don't know how to have fun, I guess. :/
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
2.75
*Thank you to Zando and NetGalley for the ALC! All opinions are my own.*
I think I was tricking myself into thinking I liked this book for the first two-thirds of it because I was so excited for it. This book is well-written. The writing is gorgeous. HOWEVER, the numbers don't lie and it just doesn't ever take me this long to read books if I enjoy them. :/ First of all, as a disclaimer, I've never read the original Carmilla so I won't be speaking at all to the retelling aspect of this book. Okay, here goes.
Thing I liked:
The writing. As I said, the prose in this is wonderful. There's strings of text in here that are absolutely the reason I was feeling so duped into thinking I was having a good time with this one.
The narrator. She was wonderful the whole way through. Her voice was so perfectly match to the tone of the book and I loved her. I'm so glad I switched from the ebook to the audio!
The last third of the book. As soon asCarmilla finally gets through to Lenore about Henry's sabotage/they get together the pace picks up immensely. It is one of my biggest to critiques that I wish a bigger portion of the book had a pace similar to this. Which brings me to...
Things I didn't like so much:
Length/pacing. It's my biggest critique of most books I read/the thing I pay the most attention to. You see it mentioned in most of my reviews. I find pacing is what catches my attention more than any plot or character development. Which is why the first two-thirds of this book largely being without any real tension between Carmilla and Lenore left me unwilling to pick this one up to finish it.
The "sapphic" subplot. Here's where I'm most upset. I've read a handful of these "sapphic vampire" novels. All of them have many rave reviews about how queer they are, etc. and it's got me wondering if I'm the problem (and if I am, so be it), because the sapphic plots/subplots in these books are NOT ENOUGH. You cannot throw a scene or two of two girls fuckin' in the middle of a book, maybe one happens to a vampire which is neat, and call it a day. There is no real yearning. There is no tension or buildup to the moment. It's gratuitous and lazy.
In Hungerstone, we get over halfway through the book with nary a TOUCH OF THE HAND, A STOLEN GLANCE before they fuck each other out of nowhere one day. This isn't what sapphic literature should be, and we as a community should not be willing to take these CRUMBS quite frankly. We deserve more and these publishers/authors using these buzzwords to make money off of an already-underrepresented community has to stop.
I think I was tricking myself into thinking I liked this book for the first two-thirds of it because I was so excited for it. This book is well-written. The writing is gorgeous. HOWEVER, the numbers don't lie and it just doesn't ever take me this long to read books if I enjoy them. :/ First of all, as a disclaimer, I've never read the original Carmilla so I won't be speaking at all to the retelling aspect of this book. Okay, here goes.
Thing I liked:
The writing. As I said, the prose in this is wonderful. There's strings of text in here that are absolutely the reason I was feeling so duped into thinking I was having a good time with this one.
The narrator. She was wonderful the whole way through. Her voice was so perfectly match to the tone of the book and I loved her. I'm so glad I switched from the ebook to the audio!
The last third of the book. As soon as
Things I didn't like so much:
Length/pacing. It's my biggest critique of most books I read/the thing I pay the most attention to. You see it mentioned in most of my reviews. I find pacing is what catches my attention more than any plot or character development. Which is why the first two-thirds of this book largely being without any real tension between Carmilla and Lenore left me unwilling to pick this one up to finish it.
The "sapphic" subplot. Here's where I'm most upset. I've read a handful of these "sapphic vampire" novels. All of them have many rave reviews about how queer they are, etc. and it's got me wondering if I'm the problem (and if I am, so be it), because the sapphic plots/subplots in these books are NOT ENOUGH. You cannot throw a scene or two of two girls fuckin' in the middle of a book, maybe one happens to a vampire which is neat, and call it a day. There is no real yearning. There is no tension or buildup to the moment. It's gratuitous and lazy.
In Hungerstone, we get over halfway through the book with nary a TOUCH OF THE HAND, A STOLEN GLANCE before they fuck each other out of nowhere one day. This isn't what sapphic literature should be, and we as a community should not be willing to take these CRUMBS quite frankly. We deserve more and these publishers/authors using these buzzwords to make money off of an already-underrepresented community has to stop.
At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
*Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the ALC! All opinions are my own.*
DNF around 40%
Unfortunately, with really short horror books like this, I find that the pacing is often off for me. After reaching nearly halfway through the audiobook with very little progression toward the main characters meeting, I made the decision to stop reading.
The narrator was wonderful, however, and I don't intend to write-off this author altogether.
DNF around 40%
Unfortunately, with really short horror books like this, I find that the pacing is often off for me. After reaching nearly halfway through the audiobook with very little progression toward the main characters meeting, I made the decision to stop reading.
The narrator was wonderful, however, and I don't intend to write-off this author altogether.
Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door by Thor Hanson
3.75
*Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the ALC! All opinions are my own.*
This was a pretty cool short read! Very informative. I loved the narrator and felt like his voice was well-suited for a nonfiction work. In terminology- or information-dense texts, it can be intimidating to read them audibly for me, because I fear I won't hear everything properly, but the narrator was perfectly clear and I never felt confused or misunderstanding.
For what this little book was, it was well-written and seemed wonderfully researched. My one note was that it felt like we were bouncing around biomes far too much. I feel like every time I blinked, we were jumping from flies to birds and back again, where I much would've rather stuck with one sort of critter for a longer chunk of time. I will say, for the sake of full transparency, I also feel like I was expecting a sort of clear call-to-action at some point in the book. That's more of a skill issue on my part, though. I'm not very well-versed in nature or backyard biology and I came looking for something that wasn't being offered.
Overall a nice little intro to backyard biology for those uninitiated like myself.
This was a pretty cool short read! Very informative. I loved the narrator and felt like his voice was well-suited for a nonfiction work. In terminology- or information-dense texts, it can be intimidating to read them audibly for me, because I fear I won't hear everything properly, but the narrator was perfectly clear and I never felt confused or misunderstanding.
For what this little book was, it was well-written and seemed wonderfully researched. My one note was that it felt like we were bouncing around biomes far too much. I feel like every time I blinked, we were jumping from flies to birds and back again, where I much would've rather stuck with one sort of critter for a longer chunk of time. I will say, for the sake of full transparency, I also feel like I was expecting a sort of clear call-to-action at some point in the book. That's more of a skill issue on my part, though. I'm not very well-versed in nature or backyard biology and I came looking for something that wasn't being offered.
Overall a nice little intro to backyard biology for those uninitiated like myself.
The Love Lyric by Kristina Forest
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5